Tuscaloosa City Council finds new revenue, expenses for fiscal 2014

A day's worth of discussions led to a modified fiscal 2014 budget for the city of Tuscaloosa that included an increase in revenue estimates and the replacement of some outdated equipment.

By Jason MortonStaff Writer

A day's worth of discussions led to a modified fiscal 2014 budget for the city of Tuscaloosa that included an increase in revenue estimates and the replacement of some outdated equipment.Outgoing Councilman Lee Garrison, in his final budget analysis for City Hall, went line-by-line through the 374-page document on Tuesday with other City Council members and city officials.Together, the elected officials decided on a $190,000 increase in expected revenues from sales taxes (an $80,000 increase), building permits ($100,000) and the city's projected share of the county's sales tax collections next fiscal year ($10,000) for the city's General Fund.These changes now put the city's fiscal 2014 General Fund revenue expectations at $130.75 million.Garrison suggested the increases based on updated sales tax and business license projections for the remaining weeks of fiscal 2013, which ends Sept. 30, as well as the three-year trend showing steady increases in each of these categories.On the General Fund's expense side, Garrison questioned the recommendations of Mayor Walt Maddox, who presented the fiscal 2014 budget to the City Council last week, in a number of areas.These included overtime estimates for the city's Facilities Maintenance and Environmental Services departments, the outside services expenses for City Hall's Information Technology Department and the Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue Service, as well as the expected expenses related to the upcoming runoffs for the 2013 municipal election, which will take place Oct. 8, seven days after fiscal 2014 begins.Garrison also recommended a $40,000 reduction to the budgeted tipping fees the Environmental Services Department expects to pay for delivering the daily household waste of Tuscaloosa's residents to landfills.Of the $750,000 budgeted for tipping fees this fiscal year, $607,446 had been spent as of Tuesday. “You could be seeing a lesser tipping fee ... because we put so many people on recycling,” Garrison said, referring to the City Council's decision to extend curbside recycling citywide in the wake of the April 27, 2011, tornado.The new tipping fee budget is $700,000.With these changes, the General Fund's expenses were decreased by $207,540.However, new expenses totaling almost $303,000 were added in the form of a new position for the mayor's office and new equipment for the Tuscaloosa Department of Transportation, among others.The new General Fund expense budget is $130.66 million.Included in these new expenses is the addition of an internal auditor to the city's payrolls, a $71,259 investment with salary and benefits. Garrison pushed to include this position in fiscal 2014 instead of waiting, as Maddox said he was willing to do.Local accounting firm Jamison Money Farmer, the city's longtime auditor, had suggested the addition of the position to speed along the auditing process while maintaining a daily watch on how the taxpayers' dollars are used.“If they stay busy,” Garrison said, “they should pay for themselves.”At the request of Jimmy Sexton, the fleet maintenance manager for the Tuscaloosa Department of Transportation, Garrison and the City Council agreed to add $176,000 worth of equipment for TDOT — a flushing unit that follows the city's street sweepers and two knuckleboom loaders — along with a $4,700 increase for a replacement Tuscaloosa Police Department patrol vehicle that had previously been budgeted at $41,200.And at the request of Councilwoman Cynthia Almond, the only council member to make a specific budgetary request during Tuesday's budget analysis meeting, $40,000 was added to purchase a trail paver to be used by the Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Authority to clear and pave trails without requiring a contractor.And the only change made to the city's Water and Sewer Fund also came at the request of Sexton, who asked for a $90,000 off-road backhoe with an extending boom to perform work near and, in certain cases inside of, Lake Tuscaloosa.“Those people up at the lake, you do a good job,” Sexton said, “and they don't ask for much.”The full City Council is expected to vote on adopting the amended fiscal 2014 budget during its regularly scheduled meeting next week.